We are Literally Just Arresting People
Dom Rottman
20 Apr 2024
Over 100 protestors at Columbia University were arrested Thursday, demanding that the university divest from companies with ties to Israel. These protests were, by all accounts, peaceful.
I’m not even exaggerating. Even Chief John Chell and Mayor Eric Adams themselves said these protests were peaceful and nonviolent. And most of these arrested “trespassers” were university students–you know, people who literally live at the university–who had been on the lawn for over a day already. But apparently President Minouche Shafik literally woke up and chose violence, believing that there was a “clear and present danger” to university operations.
Honestly, this isn’t very fair. Whenever I see someone loudly saying something I don’t like, I have a sudden urge to zip-tie them and throw them onto a bus. However, I’m told that’s “illegal.” Why do these guys get to do it? Also, I didn’t realize “clear and present” could be so nebulous and theoretical. I’m dialing 911 next time I’m at a barbecue. I mean, people are loud, and the house could catch on fire. That’s basically a recipe for a riot. I can’t blame President Shafik. Having a small army on speed dial is badass. That’s some feudal lord shit right there.
It has long been the policy of the local and national armies of the United States to respond to nonviolent action with disproportionate acts of violent aggression. However, the state is usually able to cleverly disguise this through social constructs such as “private property,” covering up body cameras, and good old-fashioned lies. But at long last that nihilistic bullshit about living in a “post-truth” world has been dispelled, now that the violence of law can be embraced openly by its executioneI mean executors, unburdened by thinking. The truth is theirs, and it is powerful indeed when it grows from the barrel of a gun.
It seems that sufficiently powerful private institutions, even private citizens, can just have a group of people rounded up and arrested. As bad as that is, what’s worse is how hard it is to express this horror without repeating cheapened words and phrases to which we have become desensitized. Dystopian. Suppression and violation of rights. Orwellian. Police State. Fascistic. This blunting is perhaps why the state is now able to say the truth with a straight face. Speech today struggles with the weight of accountability. We are literally arresting people for collectively speaking their minds and the truth. The blasé tone of law’s self-righteousness rings as hollow as fervent cries for justice.
And God, if only that was the worst thing happening.